Providing pharmacy dispensing systems a method supporting submission of multiple usual and customary charges (U&C) representing multiple prices that may be charged for a product to third parties can be a challenge with today's pharmacy computer systems. For example, pharmacies typically establish a U&C charge that represents a price for a specific drug, for a specific quantity, on a specific day, at a specific pharmacy location. The U&C price is typically defined as the amount charged cash customers for the prescription exclusive of sales tax or other amounts claimed. Because this definition has been adopted by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the definition for U&C charges cannot be modified unless a regulatory body redefines it. However, third parties (e.g., Medicaid) develop managed care pricing schema based on the “lower of” price, based upon the notion that any given patient/beneficiary of a policy shall not be forced to pay a higher rate than the price offered by the pharmacy to the general cash paying public.
In an attempt to develop loyalty, pharmacies have established pharmacy loyalty programs or other pharmacy offered pricing levels available to a patient that continues to receive their medication from a specific pharmacy. However, in the current pharmacy environment, a pharmacy typically does not have a system for providing pricing levels (e.g., pharmacy loyalty program) off of an established U&C charge. Rather, the pharmacy may rely on pharmacists to manually coordinate benefits and re-pricing of the product being requested by a customer in the prescription, or the pharmacy may choose to face the possibility of paying a financial penalty and simply not offer discount pricing.